Intense

“Ethan,” she says softly. “Let me do this.”

I look away from her. “I can’t.”

“You can. And I’m going to. Just don’t stop me.”

I shake my head. “Please, Aria. Let me figure this out. Don’t go back to them.”

She reaches up and touches my face then kisses me softly, standing on her toes. “I won’t leave you,” she says. “I’ll come back. And when I do, we’ll fix this.”

I watch her, and I know it has to happen. Something in her face tells me that she’s determined to see this through whether I want her to or not. There’s no stopping her.

And so I nod and kiss her hard, pulling her against me. When the kiss is done, I keep her in my arms.

“Be safe,” I say.

“I will be. Don’t worry.”

I have to be willing to lose some control. I have to trust her. Whatever’s happening between us is real, very real. And I can’t pretend that I don’t know what it is anymore. It’s love, real love, the kind that comes at you from out of nowhere and is so obvious in its purity that you almost can’t see it. There’s too much brightness there, and I looked away, but not anymore. I’m going to embrace it. I’m going to trust it. I’m going to trust her to come back to me, and if she can’t, I’m going to go get her.

“I love you,” I say.

“I love you too,” she whispers.

I hold her tight while letting her go.

26

Aria

They meet me out in front of Ethan’s house. Jenkins forces me to stay inside in the foyer with my bags until the car pulls up and a large man in a black jacket approaches. Jenkins doesn’t say a word when I leave.

I’m sure Jenkins is excited that I’m leaving, but I’m terrified.

After we decided on the plan, I sent The Syndicate a message through my phone and told them that I was ready to come back. They responded right away, saying they’d send somebody as soon as possible. I kissed Ethan goodbye and he left for the meeting with my father.

He’s not going to do anything at the meeting. Now the plan is to wait and see if this pans out. He’s going to try and stall, but that’ll be it.

It’s up to me now.

I ride in the back of a large town car, my bags in the trunk, worried as all hell. The woman sitting up front next to the large man is the same woman that came to see Ethan. She doesn’t introduce herself.

I can tell that they’re not happy to have me back, and that’s fine with me. I watch out the window, butterflies in my stomach, not sure what I’m going to do.

When I joined The Syndicate and gave myself up to the profession, they took me into the mansion. That’s where the auction took place. I lived there for a few weeks, learning the ropes, though there wasn’t a whole lot of learning going on. Mostly, I met a bunch of girls and we gossiped and chatted.

All of The Syndicate girls live in the mansion while they’re on assignment or waiting to go on assignment. We don’t get breaks or days off until our contract is over, and contracts are typically six months. Of course, I planned on skipping out on my contract after I got my big payday. That’s not uncommon.

Now though, I don’t know what to think. I don’t know how they’re going to treat me when I get back there. I’m hoping that the girls I know are still there, or if maybe I can meet someone new that will be willing to help me.

The mansion is a large building in the south part of the city. It looks like a normal city block, a group of row homes, but that’s just a façade. Inside, the mansion is actually one large building that encompasses the entire black, north and south. Most of the doors on the street level lead absolutely nowhere.

The car parks in front of the main entrance, an unassuming looking brick house in the middle of the block. We get out and the driver gives me my bags.

“You made the right choice,” the woman says to me as the driver gets back in the car and heads off.

“I think so,” I say.

“The Syndicate is pleased,” she replies, heading up the steps. I follow her, lugging my bags.

“Really?” I ask.

“Of course. We respect loyalty.”

She doesn’t sound pleased, though, and she doesn’t look at me when she speaks. I have a bad feeling, but I block it out.

We head inside. The entrance foyer looks like a normal row home, but as soon as we go around the corner, it opens up into the magnificent building that is the mansion.

It’s exactly as I remembered it. Plush, beautiful rugs, expensive art on the walls, high ceilings, impossibly beautiful. Everything is polished and in its right place.